AS an academic and major stakeholder in the media industry, how would you appraise the state of the nation vis-a-vis the media in Nigeria?
From what we are hearing and seeing, I think there is a lot of fear about the attempt to muzzle the media; whether the fear is justified or not is beside the point. But it appears that many Nigerians are really afraid of what is happening to the media, to the civic freedom in the country. So, it is like people feel that the media space is being threatened; the space for critical voices is being somehow suppressed. That seems to be the feeling in the land.
What do you think is responsible for the fear? Is it that some individuals or groups seem to be creating problems that the authorities feel must be nib in the bud?
The political situation in the country now is not too encouraging generally.
What exactly do you mean?
I think there is a lot of apprehension in the land. Over some months now, the insecurity, kidnapping and all that seem to give the impression that the Nigerian state is not stable. It seems to give the impression that the government is losing grip of the situation. So, it is like all these things are cumulating in a kind of panic, even in government. It is like those in government feel that people are too free in terms of what they are saying, so we need to put some measures in place to check them and at the same time, the civil society; ordinary people are feeling that the government is trying to muzzle the media, suppress critical voices in the country; so it’s a kind of a tug of war within the country. Nobody really feels so certain about what is going on. That is just it! People are a little bit more apprehensive, even those in government, people are apprehensive. You know a few days ago, the SSS came up that they have intelligence that some people want to destabilise the country. These kind of things give the impression that things are not normal. So it’s a case of working on a tight rope; everything is so unstable. People are afraid and government is not even lending credence to some of the fears that people have about the stability; about level of security in the country by some of their actions and utterances.
Let’s talk about the social media bill and the Hate Speech bill before the National Assembly that have triggered outrage and seem to be exacerbating tension across the country. The sponsor of the bill appears adamant in spite of sustained public anger and criticism of the bill. Do you believe such bill can solve the problem on ground because the argument of the sponsor is that some people are abusing the social media space?
I think that there is a general consensus that there is a kind of misuse of the social media. I don’t think anybody will disprove that. But whether the approach that has been taken by the sponsor of the bill and even the government is the right approach is another question entirely. My own position is that what led to the heightening of the level of hate speech in the country that is where we should first of all focus our attention on. Some 10 years ago or so, all this noise about hate speech was not there. So, why is it now that it is so much? We need to go and find out the reasons. What are the root causes of the kind of situation we found ourselves: whether hate speech or fake news, whatever, the level of general insecurity and things like that? We need to find out the roots of some of these problems before we can think of credible, sustainable solutions. But when all this kind of knee-jack approaches, the law and order mentality may create more problems for us if we are not careful. It is not everything that you can solve by the instrumentality of the law or the instrumentality of the military. There are certain things you need to look at; their social origin and then, you now tackle them accordingly.
In our case as a country, what do you think is the social origin of the problem at hand?
I think it is the nature of politics we are running. The do or die nature of our politics. Look at what has happened in the last two elections we have had in Bayelsa and Kogi states; look at the level of violence. So, it is like everybody believes that you have to be in power to survive; at all cost. So, that leads to a lot of problems; the kind of the winner takes all politics that we are seeing, the way that those in power have tried to appropriate the resources of the state for personal and group interest create a lot of animosity within the system. Some people feel that they are so marginalised but that until they cry out, nobody would listen to them; until they threaten other groups, nobody would listen to them. These are the issues. So, I think the problem is: how do we run an inclusive government? How do we make it such that every Nigerian will carry it in his mindset that I am a Nigerian first before I’m anything. These are critical issues that we need to examine.
There is also the issue of the rule of law. The belief now is that the government treating the respect the rule of law with disdain.
It all boils down to what I’m saying. There is fear in government that some people are taking advantage of the democratic space’ that has been created and there is the other group that is saying, ‘no, the government is trying to muzzle and even erase that democratic space. So, it’s the nature of the kind of politics that we are running; the nature of the Nigerian political economy. That is what is creating all these problems. Those in power want to impose their hegemony on the rest of the country, while those outside are saying ‘no, we will not allow it; we will fight it to the end.’ So, hate speech becomes something like a weapon of war that people are deploying. So, it’s like weaponinsing the space for conversations by all the groups, including those in power. That’s the major problem.
Yes, that brings me back to the issue you raised concerning politicians wanting to acquire power at all cost, what can be done to tame the menace before it consumes us a people?
That is where the question is. I don’t really know how because by its nature, the kind of democratic American system that we have borrowed necessarily breeds some kind of conflicts; once you are the president, you control almost everything. So, it is now the kind of democratic credentials that those in power imbibe that makes the system to be tolerable. We don’t have that yet. It seems to me we are running a democracy without democrats. We want to run Nigeria without Nigerians. You still find out that a good number of Nigerians still have our allegiance to our ethnic groups. We want to see our ethnic groups on top. All these things are creating problems; we don’t have Nigerians to run Nigeria, we don’t have democrats to run democracy. And it’s a major problem.
As an expert and major stakeholders in the media space and industry, how do you see the future of the media industry in Nigeria, especially against the backdrop of challenges confronting it?
One can only go by our historical antecedents. Every attempt that has been made even from the colonial period up to the period of the military to muzzle the Nigerian media have failed; they have not really worked. So, if you go by that historical antecedents, one would say that this period that we are passing through will pass. It will go and the media will still be there, even though those who are now in power, they would still come back to appeal to the media to help them when they are out of power. So, that is the paradoxical situation that we find ourselves. Therefore, it will continue to be a love and hate relationship, but I don’t see any government being successful to really muzzle the press. When you talk about the media, it becomes very difficult for a group to totally control everything and that is more so for the social media we have now. The globalised social media makes it very difficult for one single government to really muzzle the entire media system.
Strong institutions form part of the pillars of democracy. Do you think we are really building such institution that can stand the test of time?
Well, we have just started. It may take us sometime to build the kind of institutions that will make a strong man to be just a passing phase. We need strong institutions, no doubt, but it will take to build those institutions. As I said, we first of all need to build democrats. Nigeria must build a critical mass of democrats before we can start building the right kind of institutions that we need. For now, it appears we are running a system that is built on personality or individual, and all that. But that phase will go. It will pass away.